Crack down on £30million child benefit payments abroad

THE EU has yet again been exposed as a major drain on our national resources.

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Wed, May 28, 2014

Cameron says the UK must not have a 'soft touch' when it comes to Child Benefit payments abroad[GETTY]

Figures released to the House of Commons show that we are spending more than £30million a year on child benefit payments for children who do not even live in this country. This is because migrant workers who have come here from the EU are entitled to claim child benefit even if their offspring are living abroad.

This is extremely unfair, especially as so many British parents have lost their child benefit payments. Nigel Farage rightly said, it is “completely mad to be giving people from Eastern Europe in-work benefits”.

We’re a fair country and a welcoming country, but not a soft touch.

David Cameron

In February 2013 David Cameron, speaking about immigrants, said that, “We’re a fair country and a welcoming country, but not a soft touch.” Since then his Government has brought in new measures to prevent immigrants from claiming state handouts until they have been in the country for three months but we are still spending millions on child benefit for migrants.

There is little we can do about it. Under EU regulation EC 883/2004 child benefit is classified as a family benefit granting all EU citizens the right to claim it. Just days since Ukip topped the polls for elections to the European Parliament their anti-EU stance has been vindicated yet again.

----------

Related articles

Pension hazard identified

Pension and annuity savings are not currently taken into account when means testing takes place to decide what proportion of care costs have to be borne by the individual. It is not yet known whether money taken out of a pension as a lump sum, allowed under new rules outlined in the Budget, will be classified as cash in which case it is liable to be included during means testing.

This would lead to a nightmare scenario in which some withdraw their pension as cash but are then forced to use the money to pay for care when they would have kept all the proceeds of an annuity had they chosen one.

Customers need to know about these potential pitfalls in the new pensions rules in order to make the best use of their money.

----------

It’s phones before food

Many British children are distracted by technology during family meals according to research by Table Table. Almost nine out of 10 primary school children prefer fiddling with iPads, mobile phones and other gadgets to chatting with their parents. With such dire figures we have to be grateful for small mercies. At least they have to put the electronics down briefly to use their cutlery.